Big Canopy Campout

This September we took part in the Big Canopy Campout.

The Big Canopy Campout is an event for tree climbers and everyone who loves forests to celebrate trees and forests and raise money to help them.

You spend the night camping out in or around trees. People around the world join in and lots of people camp high up in trees. We camped under the canopy of our living willow den in our garden.

Every year the Big Canopy Campout raises money for a different organisation to do with protecting trees and forests. This year it raised money for SËRA Foundation (Fundación SËRA), which was started by young Forest Defenders from the indigenous Siekoya Remolino community who live in the rainforest in Ecuador. They’re trying protect their community and the area where they live from deforestation. One of the things they want to do is start a school to teach ancestral knowledge as well as modern skills.

One of the ways they’re raising money is by selling jewellery made by members of the Siekoya Remolino community. We chose a necklace each. We’ve hung them up in our bedroom to remind us to do everything we can to help protect the rainforests. The necklaces also came with postcards and stories drawn by members of the community.

I enjoyed our Big Canopy Campout. It was fun and I especially enjoyed having a campfire. The only problem was that there were loads of wasps flying around the willow den all night and especially in the morning!

Here’s a video of our Big Canopy Campout:

You can donate to SËRA Foundation here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/siekopai-indigenous-amazonian-youth-foundation

Thank you!